Veterans Donation Campaign Update

Given today’s tragic significance to our nation’s military, most specifically our selfless Special Operations community, I have decided to announce the results of the donation campaign surrounding the launch of my latest book, Black Flagged Vektor. Fictional, yet accurate renditions of service members, (particularly our Special Ops heroes) figure prominently in my novels, so I thought it only appropriate to split my target donation amount between two groups that best represent our nation’s finest.

Screen Shot 2013-08-06 at 11.15.27 AMI have donated $1000 to the Wounded Warriors Project and $1000 to the Navy SEAL Foundation (my military roots begin with the Naval Special Warfare community). Both of these amounts will be matched, bringing the total to $4000. This brings the total amount given to these (and other) worthy Veteran’s organizations to $11,000 over the past two years.

Screen Shot 2013-08-06 at 11.20.43 AMYour support of my books has made this possible, so please accept my sincerest and most enthusiastic THANK YOU! Spread the word, and lets continue to support dedicated, heroic men and women that TAKE THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY.

Historical Background: Two years ago, on August 6th, 31 Special Operations service members were killed when their transport helicopter brought down by enemy fire. They were on their way to reinforce a unit of Army Rangers engaged in a brutal firefight nearby. Six years earlier, in late June, 19 Special Operations personnel were killed during Operation Red Wings, when a Quick Reaction Force helicopter was shot down during the rescue attempt of an overwhelmed SEAL patrol, killing all on board. Three of the four SEALs in the patrol were also killed that day.

Black Flagged Vektor live at Amazon

 

Black Flagged VektorI’m very excited to announce that Black Flagged Vektor is now available as an ebook at Amazon. The hardcopy version should be available by the end of the weekend (always takes me a little longer to put that together…sorry Greg).

DONATION CAMPAIGN NEWS!

As always, I will donate a significant portion of the initial proceeds to veteran’s charities.

For Black Flagged Vektor’s launch, I have decided to split the donation between The Wounded Warrior Project and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Both organizations serve the unmet needs of veterans and their families, bringing the concept of “no man or woman left behind” to the often overlooked battle these families face even after they return from combat.

WE have raised $7000 for organizations like these over the course of the last three book launches. My goal is to donate $2000 and have that doubled by my company’s matching gifts program, raising the total to $11,000.

You can help the cause by spreading the word…and dare I say it…plunk down $4.97 for 420 pages of pure covert operations/political/espionage enjoyment!  Purchase Black Flagged Vektor Today

Memorial Day and upcoming veterans charity campaign

Memorial Day weighs heavily on the hearts of veterans and service members. We all know someone, or all too often, MANY…who have fallen in service of our nation. Memorial Day weighs even more heavily on the parents, spouses, children and family  of those same men and women. It’s a solemn day for them. A day in which most of us go about our business trying to enjoy the very same things the aforementioned can not fully embrace. They attend the barbecues,  picnics and parades, but someone is missing. Someone is always missing for them. Take a moment today, to quietly remember the fallen and their families.

I decided to start Memorial Day with two things.

First, I just donated $100 to producer Tracee Beebe’s film The Unremembered. She’s tackling a difficult subject affecting Vietnam Veterans, one of whom is her father. The Unremembered is a dedicated effort to bring attention to thousands of veterans that have been denied the benefits they deserve, and their friends died to preserve. Consider making a donation and bringing their plight into the open. Link to The Unremembered.

Second, I decided once again to coordinate a charity campaign with the launch of my next book, Black Flagged Vektor. Previous campaigns raised a total of $7000 for organizations like the DAV and Wounded Warriors Project. I will continue to support the Wounded Warriors Project with my upcoming launch. My goal for this charity campaign is $2000, which will yield $4000 through a corporate match.

As always, spread the word. 

The pictures below were taken during a recent trip to my alma mater, the United States Naval Academy. The first picture shows my son, Matthew, standing at the entrance to Memorial Hall. The second gives a more panoramic view of the space. Memorial Hall is dedicated to all of the Naval Academy graduates who have fallen in the line of duty. There are many.

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Black Flagged Redux and the Wounded Warrior Project

FINAL TALLY  $1700 Raised For Wounded Warrior Project

Black Flagged Redux will be available to readers on Friday, May 11th.

Continuing in the tradition of giving to our nation’s heroes, I have chosen to donate the proceeds from my next charity book launch event to the Wounded Warrior Project. With Memorial Day right around the corner, May is the perfect month to honor veterans who carried the war back with them from the front-lines, facing challenges at home that few of us can possibly imagine. The Wounded Warrior Project helps these brave men and women tackle their unique challenges head on, with a variety of services designed to assist and empower .

The charity campaign surrounding Black Flagged raised over $1700 for the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) organization. I hope to double that amount for the launch of Black Flagged Redux.

With that said, here are the details:

Stage One: The Launch Weekend

1.) Starts whenever the book goes live on Friday May 11 and ends when I check the number of sales on Monday morning.

For each Kindle sale: I will donate the entire purchase price of the e-book and match that price with my own funds. I am offering the book at .99 for the weekend. Every sale will generate $2.

Purchase Kindle Book  OR  Purchase Hardcopy OR Purchase NOOK Book

Don’t have a Kindle? Really? Just kidding. The book will also be available in physical form on Amazon. I’ll donate $2 per sale over the weekend and the rest of the month. Other ways to enjoy the ebook and be part of the weekend rush? You can  Download the Kindle for PC program onto your PC  OR Download the Kindle App for iPad OR Download the Kindle App for PC.

If you don’t have an Amazon account, I’m not going to pressure you into that. If you’d like, I’ll accept a donation in exchange for a signed copy of the book. It costs me $8 to put the book in your hands ($6 for discounted copy + $2 media rate mail). Email me at skonkoly@earthlink.net and we can work out the details

Stage Two: The Rest of May

1.) After the weekend, I will raise the price to $3.99 and donate $1.00 from each sale.

2.) Like last time, you can track the progress daily on my blog. I’ll keep updating the numbers.

What You Can Do to have the biggest impact?

1.)  Buy the book from Amazon over the weekend: Purchase Black Flagged Redux eBook OR Purchase Black Flagged Redux Hardcopy

2.) I’m obviously encouraging the e-book route, as this makes the biggest impact on Amazon’s sales rankings algorithms, which will keep the momentum flowing for the rest of the month.

Spread the Word.

Forward this blog post, send the email forward…get the word out to the masses. My goal is to double the amount donated last November.

Donation Campaign for Disabled Veterans

UPDATED 11/20/2011: Two weeks into Black Flagged’s launch, and the total amount raised for the Disabled American Veterans organization (DAV) exceeds $600 (including corporate matching gift). Thank you all very much! There is still time and opportunity. One more day for all proceeds from sales to go to the DAV, and I’ll match these proceeds. $2 per hard copy will go to the DAV for the remainder of the month, and I’m hosting a book launch party at the very beginning of December. All proceeds from this charity event go to the DAV, and will mark the unofficial end to the Donation Campaign for Disabled Veterans. I will finalize the tally, and cut a check to the DAV, which my employer will match. Keep spreading the word, it’s not over yet!

UPDATED  11/13/2011: Thank you for a great launch week! So far, the total raised for the campaign is $253.50. Simply fantastic. I am extending the matching donation campaign one more week. All proceeds from sales for this next week will go to the Disabled American Veterans organization, and once again, I will match them. Spread the word! Early holiday gift?  

Purchase from all sources here: www.blackflaggedseries.com

Check out this sample: Prologue

Chapter One

Every time I  futz around with my blog or any of my book sites, I learn something new. Yesterday, I learned that Amazon provides me with a separate e-store for selling the hard copy versions of my novels. So what? My thoughts exactly…until I started to set up the sales channels for my new novel, Black Flagged. I discovered that a sale at the e-store site pays me more than the same sale at Amazon’s regular Amazon.com storefront. Interesting. Maybe less bureaucracy at the e-store page? I have no idea. I can even track which sales go through the e-store, and which come from Amazon.com. Pretty cool, and it got me thinking…which is usually a dangerous thing. Not this time.

I’ve decided to give the difference (roughly 2$ for Black Flagged and $3 for The Jakarta Pandemic) to the Disabled American Veterans organization, a non-profit that has served disabled veterans for decades. It currently serves the needs and interests of over 200,000 disabled veterans, and I can’t think of a better way to repay our nation’s disabled service members. As a veteran myself, I understand the value of DAV’s advocacy, and hope you’ll chose to order your book through this portal (if you are looking for a hard copy version). It’s the same price to you, so why not?

I will post updates at the top of my blog, regarding the amount achieved, and will likely be able to double the amount through my employer’s matching charitable donations program. Thank you in advance for your support of our veterans. You can use the links to the right, under the Book Store heading, to reach the e-store portal.

Check out the Disabled American Veterans website too, if you get a chance.  www.dav.org

We made a business decision to miss the fireworks…

and I’m still bummed out about it almost a week later.

This is the time of the year when I feel the most nostalgic about my military past, and find myself digging up old photos and memorabilia from those days. Leaving the Navy was bittersweet for me, but it was the right decision. For every one thing I miss, there are probably five that I don’t. I do know that the biggest thing I would have missed, if I had stayed on for several more years, was my family. I had found that I resented time away from home, more and more as our family grew, and this is how I knew it was time to part ways. I had given 12 years, if you count my 4 in Annapolis, and would have gone anywhere Uncle Sam had seen fit to send me. I was extremely fortunate to have hit one of the peaceful cycles in our nation’s history, 93′ to 01′, which would be shattered just three short months after I left.

Back to the fireworks. Unfortunately, the 4th fell on a Monday, and my wife and I were facing a full week of work and summer camp…so, as the afternoon progressed, we both started grumbling about getting home after ten o’clock, fighting traffic, getting bitten by mosquitoes, packing lunches for camp. The list of grievances continued until we decided to bag the fireworks. The kids weren’t happy, but we eased their pain with the promise of sparklers and ice cream. We were both exhausted from the long weekend, and went to bed pretty early, so we could hear the fireworks through our bedroom windows…and this is when I truly realized what I loved about the fireworks. THE NOISE!

“The rockets red glare…the bombs bursting in air” is spectacular, and gets most of the ooohs and aaaahs, but I enjoy the deep resonating booms and sharp crackles more. I count the time it takes the sound to reach us, from each flash, applying an old field trick to determine distance to a target. What? You say. Well, I spent the last four years of my Navy career working with Marines, first as a forward observer and then as an instructor for the Navy/Marine Corps school that taught new forward observers. I have always loved explosions and the sound of gunfire, but these four years turned it into a love affair. As a forward observer and forward air controller, I got to “radio in” just about every munition in the Navy or Marine Corps arsenal. A few years later, as an instructor down in Coronado, California, I was assigned to a rare job, filled by only three naval officers and one Navy Chief.

We ran the Navy’s only ship to shore bombardment range, which was located about 50 miles off the Orange County coast, on a nasty little chunk of rock called San Clemente Island. It’s sister island is a day trip oasis known as Catalina Island. Somehow, stuff thrived on the other island…or at least someone tried to make it happen. San Clemente was a washed out rock, beautiful in its own way, but sparse and mostly abandoned. On the south-west tip of the island, sits the Navy’s Shore Bombardment Area, and a few  horrifyingly old structures used to house the “range safety officers.” ME.

We’d sit in a bunker, and “radio” fire missions to ships off shore, or we’d oversee Marines doing the same thing. Either way, if someone was firing at that range, we were required to be there. This is where I fell in love with the sound of high explosives. The 5 inch shells fired by our modern navy pale in comparison to the 8 inch and larger guns of the older fleet, but it was still impressive. I’d make a radio call, engage in a scripted back and forth conversation with the ship, and less than a minute later, 5 inch shells would crash into the beach area below…way below. It sounded exactly like the Fourth of July. When ships were looking to dump ammo, we’d call in lots of shells. The more the better, and we’d try to move the impacts closer and closer to the “bunker.” We were told it could withstand a direct hit from a 16 inch shell. The concrete was easily three feet thick, but I had my doubts about that…but these were only 5 inch shells. Still, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one of the “smaller explosions.” I have a piece of shrapnel from one of these, and it could easily remove your head.

So, as I lie in bed last Monday, I was bummed that I wasn’t closer to the sounds. My thoughts drifted to my days out at San Clemente Island. There was no other experience like it at the time. Today, there are a lot of veterans and active duty military personnel that would be happy to never hear a sound like that again, and I can only imagine how many of them watched fireworks displays with a little anxiety, AND A TON OF PRIDE. 

My hat goes off to all of them, and especially the ones who have heard the REAL THING…and probably not from a bunker like the one I got to sit in ten years ago.

I’m going to commemorate these veterans by releasing an uncut scene from a book that I published last fall. I had read several accounts of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade’s attack through An-Nasiriyah, particularly the fierce fighting around the bridge over the Saddam Canal. The day saw fierce fighting all throughout the city, but I was drawn to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines’ story. They heroically held the bridge, in the confused absence of reinforcements, for most of the day, suffering 18 killed. Worse, they were repeatedly attacked by U.S. A-10 attack jets, who mistook their vehicles for an incoming enemy armor offensive. I chose to use their incredible story as background for the main character of my novel. The scene is historical fiction, based on the fight to hold the Saddam Canal Bridge, and I hope I did some justice to these Marines and Sailors.  They truly deserve it. You can find the scene here: UNCUT BATTLE SCENE from The Jakarta Pandemic